This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: WaPo
April 20, 2010
Dorothy I. Height, 98, a founding matriarch of the American civil rights movement whose crusade for racial justice and gender equality spanned more than six decades, died early Tuesday morning of natural causes, a spokesperson for the National Council of Negro Women said.
Ms. Height was among the coalition of African American leaders who pushed civil rights to the center of the American political stage after World War II, and she was a key figure in the struggles for school desegre
Source: WaPo
April 20, 2010
During her elementary school years in this rural Mississippi town, Addreal Harness, a competitive teenager with plans to be a doctor, said her classes had about the same numbers of white and black students. It was a fact she took little note of until the white kids began leaving.
Some left in seventh grade, even more in eighth, and by the time Harness, who is African American, reached Tylertown High School, she became aware of talk that has slowly seeped into her 16-year-old psyche
Source: NYT
April 16, 2010
They are two of the smartest men of their generation, both magna cum laude products of Harvard Law School, both cerebral and charming and ambitious. They vaulted to the highest offices in the land after just short stints at the next level down, and each was seen initially as a conciliator only to lead on the strength of his own majority.
Many years after their campus days in Cambridge, Mass., President Obama and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. have emerged as the intellectual glad
Source: AFP
April 18, 2010
Foreign tourists will soon be tramping around Mesopotamia again after a French company on Sunday opened an office offering visits to ancient sites in war-ravaged southern Iraq.
"We have organised our inaugural journey between 6-14 June to the region of Nasiriyah and we will do it regularly, every three weeks from September," said Hubert Debbash, boss of Terre Entiere, a cultural and religious tours operator.
With the road from Baghdad not yet secure, the visit
Source: BBC News
April 18, 2010
Remains unearthed in Nottinghamshire could be an unknown Roman temple, archaeologists have claimed.
Excavations on the Minster C of E School site in Southwell between September 2008 and May 2009 revealed walls, ditches and ornate stones.
The team analysing the finds said the shape and quality of the remains suggest it could have been an important place of worship.
This could mean Southwell enjoyed a high status Roman Britain, they added.
A wa
Source: BBC News
April 19, 2010
Celebrations have been taking place in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to mark the country's bicentenary.
A large parade included the military and different groups from across Venezuelan society.
Attending the celebrations were allies of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, such as President Raul Castro from Cuba and President Evo Morales from Bolivia.
Mr Chavez said his socialist policies were part of the same battle as that of independence hero Simon Bolivar
Source: The Examiner
April 15, 2010
Although Virginians might not consider an attack by the Dutch Navy to be a serious threat these days, such was not always the case. Little remembered today is the fact that England (and the colony of Virginia) went to war three times with Holland in the mid-17th century. The wars were mostly over trade rivalries between the two nations and since Virginia tobacco was a significant trade item with England, that made the Chesapeake Bay a big inviting target of the Dutch.
During the “Se
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 19, 2010
A full-sized replica of Stonehenge will be built on a beach in western Australia after a small town gave the green light for construction in a bid to draw tourists.
The shire council in Esperance, 460 miles south-west of Perth, has approved plans for the A$1.2m (£722,749) project, which it hopes will generate much-needed tourist revenue for the small coastal community – its only attraction at the moment is small piece of the US Skylab which fell onto a nearby farm in 1979.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 19, 2010
England is the least patriotic country in Europe, with just one in three British people aware of the date of St George's Day a survey has shown.
Only a third of people were aware that the celebration of St George was this Friday, while forty per cent did not know why he is the patron saint, a study revealed yesterday. (MON)
Political correctness and a fear of appearing racist were said to be the main factors in the apparent lack of patriotism in England, along with th
Source: Science Daily
April 19, 2010
Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur with a softball-sized lump of solid bone on top of its skull, according to a paper published in the April issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.
The species was a plant-eating dinosaur about as big as a medium-sized dog that lived 70 to 80 million years ago, said Nicholas Longrich of Yale University, lead author of the paper. The team discovered two skull fragments in Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas in 2008. They
Source: Science Daily
March 26, 2010
The idea that palaeolithic art is based in religious beliefs isn't new. But for years, anthropologists, archaeologists and historians of art understood these artistic manifestations as purely aesthetic and decorative motives. Eduardo Palacio-Pérez, researcher at the University of Cantabria (UC), now reveals the origins of the theory.
This idea appeared at the end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century. Up until then, Palaeolithic art had been interpreted as a simple
Source: Reuters
April 19, 2010
Iran wants $300,000 in compensation from the British Museum over its failure to lend the Islamic Republic an ancient Persian treasure, state television reported.
The dispute over the so-called Cyrus Cylinder, named after the Persian ruler's 6th century BC conquest of Babylon, is a further sign of deteriorating relations between Tehran and London.
Britain is among Western powers pushing for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its refusal to halt sensitive
Source: AFP
April 18, 2010
Foreign tourists will soon be tramping around Mesopotamia again after a French company on Sunday opened an office offering visits to ancient sites in war-ravaged southern Iraq.
With the road from Baghdad not yet secure, the visitors will arrive in Kuwait and cross the border to reach Nasiriyah about 370 kilometres (230 miles) away. The nine-day tour will cost 2,500 euros (3,375 dollars).
The company hopes to secure 100 clients this year, rising to 500 in 2011, Debbash s
Source: Appalachian State University
April 16, 2010
Ground-penetrating radar and an electrical resistivity system are being used to confirm the location of African-American graves in the Boone Cemetery.
The cemetery, located just south of Hardin Street and adjacent to the Appalachian State University campus, is divided into two sections, locally referred to as the “white” (east) and “black” (west) sections. The west section is the larger and contains hundreds of well-marked graves within a fenced perimeter. The east section contain
Source: AP
April 19, 2010
You have to wonder what Fountain J. Busey would think if he knew that people were scavenging around his property.
Busey was a real Champaign County pioneer, arriving here in 1829 (four years before the county was established) from Shelby County, Ky., with his parents, Matthew and Sallie Busey. In 1836, he purchased a 40-acre parcel of prairie about 2 miles southeast of downtown Urbana along what is now High Cross Road, or Illinois 130.
Now, around 150 years later, the c
Source: Gazette (Colorado Springs)
April 17, 2010
Gold miner James Roberts was pistol-whipped to death a century ago, but he can’t rest in peace.
He’s resting in pieces.
His body is buried in an unmarked grave, and his cranium is in a box formerly used to hold raffle tickets in a saloon. Such has been the long, crazy odyssey for the top of Mr. Roberts’ head. It started in 1901 when a coroner cut off the cranium for a slick lawyer to use in the alleged killer’s defense. In the decades since, the bone has gathered dust i
Source: Telegraph (UK)
April 19, 2010
Ancient stones which are thought to be 1,000 years older than Stonehenge have been discovered in Dartmoor.
The nine stones at Cut Hill, one of the highest points on Dartmoor in Devon, have been carbon-dated to around 3,500BC.
The discovery of the megaliths has delighted archaeologists and will reignite the debtae about the purpose of Stonehenge, which is 120 miles away in Wiltshire.
Standing in a line they are 1,000 years older than Britain's most famous
Source: Gettysburg Times
April 16, 2010
In his first public meeting as superintendent of Gettysburg National Military Park, Bob Kirby announced Thursday night that the Ziegler’s Grove restoration project is scheduled to commence this month.
He also noted that attorneys for the National Park Service and the Dept. of Justice are “reviewing options” in the legal battle over the old Cyclorama Center.
A federal judge ruled two weeks ago that the park must reconsider its Cyclorama building demolition plans and incl
Source: USA Today
April 16, 2010
For many tourism marketers below the Mason-Dixon Line, old times are not forgotten — they're promoted.
But as Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell discovered when he proclaimed April as Confederate History Month without mentioning slavery (an omission he corrected after a volley of protests), pitching Dixie's past during the run-up to next year's 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War could be challenging.
"The Civil War sesquicentennial is going to be a minefield
Source: Richmond Times-Dispatch
April 12, 2010
Preservation issues -- such as the one going on with Wal-Mart and the Wilderness battlefield -- are going to become only more contentious in coming years as suburban sprawl and economic development collide with once-rural Civil War battlefields.
It often comes down to a matter of money vs. history.
"Most of the time what drives counties is economic development," said Art Taylor, president of the Hanover County Historical Society and an active member of Friends
